Tyler Glenn — lead singer for Neon Trees is proud to be Mormon. In a recent issue of Rolling Stone magazine, Tyler also came out as gay. Since then, his story has been the subject of countless articles and interviews. In his conversation with the Far Between project, Tyler shares …

Growing up in a military family, Becky’s activity and testimony of the LDS church was a stabilizing force in her world from a young age–she always had to be the first person to the pulpit on fast Sunday’s to bear her testimony. But she was attracted to women so she …

Devon has always had a picture of how he wanted his life to go, and, on the surface, his life has followed that path. He served a mission, married in the temple and has a small family. The problem is that he’s gay, and, though he and his wife get …

Alex realized he was same-sex attracted when he was 18. Since early childhood, Alex had felt attracted to men, but didn’t understand what that meant until high school when he attempted to cover his attractions up by being more “macho.” Alex briefly served as a proselytizing missionary for the LDS Church, until his anxiety and depression …

Matt, originally from Brazil, encountered the LDS church while he was a foreign exchange student in the US. He decided to pray about the truthfulness of the LDS church’s claims, and, after receiving his answer, he joined the church, served a full-time mission, and baptized both of his parents. Still, …

Stan wanted everything the church wanted for him (“Temple marriage, white-picket-fence-American-dream”), but he discovered that he wanted all of those things only because everyone else wanted them for him. After his excommunication, earlier this year, Stan felt “pushed up against a wall” that forced him to decide what he believes, …

Emily feels a strong sense of hope for the future and a confidence in herself that she attributes to living a more open and authentic life. Emily speaks of her “un-boxing” process and the positive change she has experienced, resulting in an increase of happiness, joy and peace. This positive …

For Tim, bullying reinforced feelings of worthlessness and rejection that he was already feeling from his community and, he feared, from God. He attributes much of his happiness now to his parents’ love, which helped him correct the negative messages he was receiving elsewhere. He also found success as he …

Jennifer testifies that, “there is so much more variety than this box or that box.” As an asexual woman, she thought maybe she was broken when she realized she didn’t feel attractions to men or women. This feeling of being broken intensified after she was married and found that she …

Berta self-identifies as a bisexual women who largely gravitates toward women, yet, in deference to her family and faith, has stayed closeted for over 18 years. Berta’s is a message of hope, but not a hope void of nuance or complication. She is grateful for the largely positive experiences she …

Kim says she is “not a typical Mormon mother”–she is open about being a lesbian and remains a committed Mormon despite negative experiences and excommunication. The founder of the support group Disciples 2, Kim allows members of the online support group to speak from their own experience, even when those experiences …

In the second part of her interview, Kim shares what it was like to be a 17-year-old who “just wanted to know if she was normal” when she opened up to a Young Women’s leader for the first time and was subsequently isolated from her peers. She revisits other early experiences of …

In part three of her interview, Kim talks us through the ways in which the law of chastity differs between homosexual and heterosexual members of the LDS church and explains her shift from self identifying as “Same Sex Attracted” to “Gay or Lesbian–but I don’t act on it!” and, finally, to simply owning …

Laurie was born a Mormon in Las Vegas in the 1960s. She suffered through sexual abuse, struggles with substance abuse and the conflict between her same-sex attractions and her LDS testimony. After choosing to sacrifice lesbian relationships for her religious convictions, she then fell in love with and married a man. …

In part two of her interview, Laurie opens up about her college years where she let alcoholism and drug addiction lead her away from activity in the Mormon church. Away from mormonism Laurie felt free to pursue romantic relationships with women. During this time she found herself in love with a …

In part 1 of their interview, proud parents of two children, Ty and Danielle Mansfield married in 2010 and currently live in Provo, Utah, where Ty is studying to become a marriage and family therapist. In 2004, Ty coauthored In Quiet Desperation: Understanding the Challenge of Same-Gender Attraction and later in 2011, compiled the anthology Voices of Hope: …

In part 2 of their interview, proud parents of two children, Ty and Danielle married in 2010 and currently live in Provo, Utah, where Ty is studying to become a marriage and family therapist. In 2004, Ty coauthored In Quiet Desperation: Understanding the Challenge of Same-Gender Attraction and later in 2011, compiled the anthology Voices of Hope: Latter-day …

In part one of this interview, Dr. Lee Beckstead, Ph.D. explains that he is a licensed psychologist with a private therapy practice in Salt Lake City. Over the years, he has conducted extensive research into understanding how to resolve sexual, social, and religious conflicts. As a part of an APA task …

Growing up in the LDS church has given Jacob a real and deep-seated faith. But after finishing grad school, Jacob could no longer avoid the same-sex attraction he’s felt since childhood. Afraid of being told by ecclesiastical leaders that his faith simply wasn’t “strong enough” to eliminate feelings of homosexuality, …

Shawna is “on the edge.” As an active celibate member of the LDS church Shawna describes the happiness church activity has brought over the years. She also feels the deep burden of alienation and heartache as she strives to maintain her activity while watching other members of the church have …

Candice joined the LDS church with her family when she was 8 years old. In her early teens, she began to understand that her female gender identity didn’t fit her male physical body. The following years were hard for her, and after several suicide attempts, she realized she needed to change the course …

In part three of their interview, proud parents of two children, Ty and Danielle married in 2010 and currently live in Provo, Utah, where Ty is studying to become a marriage and family therapist. In 2004, Ty coauthored In Quiet Desperation: Understanding the Challenge of Same-Gender Attraction and later in 2011, compiled the anthology Voices of Hope: Latter-day …

In part 4 of their interview, Josh and Lolly have been married since 2002 and are the parents of three daughters. Josh recently came out to the world as a Mormon homosexual married to a woman in the blog post that went viral, “Club Unicorn: In which I come out of …

In the second part of their 2-part interview, sixteen years into their marriage, Mikeal and Mandi Jensen have a keen awareness of what exactly it means to be in a “mixed-orientation marriage” and they do not hold back in sharing how they feel about it. When they first married, though …